Twitter co-founders launch new social publishing website Medium

Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone have unveiled a new social publishing website called Medium, which centres around collections.

Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone have unveiled a new social site (Picture: PA)

The tech titans, who brought us hashtags, trending and posts in 140 characters or less, explained that Medium is designed to ‘allow people to choose the level of contribution they prefer’.Public collections on the site can be started and contributed to by any user, with titles such as Look What I Made, The Obvious Collection and Been There.Loved That.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone (Picture: File)

These collections appear in an aesthetically-pleasing grid format, and allow users to rank different contributions, with the best ones appearing near the top.However, users will have more control over who sees their collections and contributions than they would on Twitter.

Medium users will be able to create private collections, to be shared only with a group of family and friends for example, and they will also be able to dictate how prominently their contributions appear in other collections.

Williams explained this new attitude to privacy, saying: ‘We know that most people, most of the time, will simply read and view content, which is fine.

‘If they choose, they can click to indicate whether they think something is good, giving feedback to the creator and increasing the likelihood others will see it.’

While still directors of Twitter, Williams and Stone are involved with Medium as it was launched by their San Francisco-based company The Obvious Corporation.